Is Samsung a bigger threat to Android than Apple?

Here's an interesting stat: according to Gartner's bean counters, Samsung accounted for more than 40% of all Android smartphone sales in Q1.

It's just reward for giving us a steady supply of strong products for a good five years now, and keeping a clear and consistent sense of its own identity and brand value, something a fair few of its Android stablemates could learn a lesson from.

Samsung was a giant in the consumer technology business well before the smartphone era began, but has gone from strength to strength on the back of its smartphone (and to a smaller extent) tablet operations.

It seems a long time ago now that Samsung's mobile phone division split its allegiances between Windows Mobile and Symbian, a fact that makes Sammy's newly earned status as the best-selling phone maker on the planet all the more remarkable.

In hindsight, it made the switch to Android at just the right time – quite happy to let HTC to get its hands dirty in Android's early days while it slowly built momentum on its way to the platform-dominating heights it sits at today.

A good few stats have emerged recently that illustrate just how dominant Samsung and Apple are in the mobile industry today, whether you're talking about handset sales, or more importantly profits.

But Gartner's Q1 sales breakdown raises eyebrows not so much for Samsung's 40% Android market share, but the fact that none of the other Android OEMs got into double figures.

Historically, Apple and the iPhone have always been portrayed as Android's number one enemy, but a new reality is starting to emerge: if anyone is cannibalising sales from HTC, Sony, LG and Motorola (plus all the others), it isn't Apple, it's Samsung.

On the surface of it, Samsung clearly plans to continue doing what it's been doing – releasing a steady flow of new products that maintain a fresh presence across the full spectrum of the smartphone market.

There's no reason to do anything else, really: the company has huge momentum right now, and the best way to keep it is to maintain the high standards that got it there in the first place.

The question is: what comes next? With the vast majority of market share and profits increasingly falling to just two companies, Apple and Samsung, there simply isn't enough left for everyone else.

The Galaxy S wasn't that bad, was it? Stick Cyanogen Mod on it and you've eradicated all its infamous firmware issues, then you were left with a seriously good phone (bar the fact Samsung decided the camera didn't deserve a flash...odd).

The Galaxy S wasn't that bad, was it? Stick Cyanogen Mod on it and you've eradicated all its infamous firmware issues, then you were left with a seriously good phone (bar the fact Samsung decided the camera didn't deserve a flash...odd).
The Galaxy S was not the first Galaxy

I wasn't into Android back then, I was an iOS kinda guy . The Spica does look like a pretty terrible phone, the original Galaxy S was a big step up...
The Spica was awful. Stickiest screen ever, slow, ****-ugly. But: on the plus-side - no TouchWiz. But honestly, I thought that'd be the end of Sammy's romance with Android.
It was as if East German Timetravelers from 1979 remade the Samsung Jet

Since Samsung decided to stiff owners of a less than one yr old tv with regards to firmware upgrades, then I shall never buy another samsung product.....
They need to realise that looking after past customers is just as important as finding new ones...

Since Samsung decided to stiff owners of a less than one yr old tv with regards to firmware upgrades, then I shall never buy another samsung product.....
They need to realise that looking after past customers is just as important as finding new ones...
Can't argue with that.
But: THEY all suck. There is no customer-friendly corporation. They all could make a well-balanced, well-built device that wouldn't scream for weekly updates... They don't. They want your soul, and short of that your money. There. Happy Sunday

Can't argue with that.
But: THEY all suck. There is no customer-friendly corporation. They all could make a well-balanced, well-built device that wouldn't scream for weekly updates... They don't. They want your soul, and short of that your money. There. Happy Sunday
You know, I am happy to give them money, but after paying 800 quid for a tv, and to find that after just 8 months, they will no longer give the updates they said they would... well it sucks. I would hafe far less problem finding new features were not being added to the 300 quid special I bought at tesco, but after spending so much, and after being told that features were on their way, to find out that they simply changed their minds.....

Can't argue with that.
But: THEY all suck. There is no customer-friendly corporation. They all could make a well-balanced, well-built device that wouldn't scream for weekly updates... They don't. They want your soul, and short of that your money. There. Happy Sunday
You know, I am happy to give them money, but after paying 800 quid for a tv, and to find that after just 8 months, they will no longer give the updates they said they would... well it sucks. I would hafe far less problem finding new features were not being added to the 300 quid special I bought at tesco, but after spending so much, and after being told that features were on their way, to find out that they simply changed their minds.....

Not good Samsung, not good.
Yeah, that sounds like ****... No wonder you're p.o.'ed

See my rants earlier this week for my current feelings about Samsung Electronics and their level of customer service.

On that note, the £4.95 part I ordered off eBay arrived this morning, it took about 10 mins from start to finish to open the phone, remove the old part, fit the new part, close the phone back up and check everything worked okay (which it did).

I can't believe Samsung decided to tarnish their reputation with a long term customer over trying to get out of obliging the warranty they decided to provide in the first place (all for a part which can't have cost them more than a couple of pounds). We all know "water damage" is every company'd favourite B/S line to make customers pay to have things fixed on their devices...I'm genuinely annoyed with myself that I let these cowboys have possession of my phone for a week. I'm very glad it was thoroughly wiped of all data before it got into their corrupt, lying hands.